Intent discovery in audio or text-based conversation

ABSTRACT

Techniques, an apparatus and an article of manufacture identifying one or more utterances that are likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from a conversation between two or more parties. A method includes obtaining an input of a set of utterances in chronological order from a conversation between two or more parties, computing an intent confidence value of each utterance by summing intent confidence scores from each of the constituent words of the utterance, wherein intent confidence scores capture each word&#39;s influence on the subsequent utterances in the conversation based on (i) the uniqueness of the word in the conversation and (ii) the number of times the word subsequently occurs in the conversation, and generating a ranked order of the utterances from highest to lowest intent confidence value, wherein the highest intent value corresponds to the utterance which is most likely to carry intent of the speaker.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to information technology,and, more particularly, to audio analysis.

BACKGROUND

Challenges exist in ascertaining speaker intent in audio or text-basedhuman dialogue. Existing approaches have largely focused on callsegmentation, emotion detection, summarization and other similar topics.However, a need exists for a technique to automatically detectutterances in a conversation that are likely to carry speaker intentfrom an audio or text-based conversation.

SUMMARY

In one aspect of the present invention, techniques for intent discoveryin audio or text-based conversation are provided. An exemplarycomputer-implemented method for identifying one or more utterances thatare likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from a conversation betweentwo or more parties, can include steps of obtaining an input of a set ofutterances in chronological order from a conversation between two ormore parties, computing an intent confidence value of each utterance bysumming intent confidence scores from each of the constituent words ofthe utterance, wherein intent confidence scores capture each word'sinfluence on the subsequent utterances in the conversation based on (i)the uniqueness of the word in the conversation and (ii) the number oftimes the word subsequently occurs in the conversation, and generating aranked order of the utterances from highest to lowest intent confidencevalue, wherein the highest intent value corresponds to the utterancewhich is most likely to carry intent of the speaker.

In another aspect of the invention, techniques can include the steps ofproviding at least one transcript of utterances from a conversationbetween two or more parties to a word weight scoring module to performinverse document frequency based scoring on each word in the at leastone transcript, thereby generating a weight for each word, wherein theinverse document frequency based scoring measures the frequency of eachword throughout the at least one transcript, calculating a weight foreach utterance in the transcript to generate weighted utterances bysumming the weights of each constituent word in each utterance,comparing at least one weighted utterance to pre-existing exampleutterances carrying the intent of a speaker to determine a relevancyscore for the at least one weighted utterance based on similarity to theexample utterances, and generating a ranked order of the at least oneweighted utterance from highest to lowest intent relevancy score,wherein the highest intent relevancy score corresponds to the utterancewhich is most likely to carry intent of the speaker.

Another aspect of the invention or elements thereof can be implementedin the form of an article of manufacture tangibly embodying computerreadable instructions which, when implemented, cause a computer to carryout a plurality of method steps, as described herein. Furthermore,another aspect of the invention or elements thereof can be implementedin the form of an apparatus including a memory and at least oneprocessor that is coupled to the memory and operative to perform notedmethod steps.

Yet further, another aspect of the invention or elements thereof can beimplemented in the form of means for carrying out the method stepsdescribed herein, or elements thereof; the means can include (i)hardware module(s), (ii) software module(s), or (iii) a combination ofhardware and software modules; any of (i)-(iii) implement the specifictechniques set forth herein, and the software modules are stored in atangible computer-readable storage medium (or multiple such media).

These and other objects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionof illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connectionwith the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment, accordingto an aspect of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating techniques for identifying one ormore utterances that are likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from aconversation between two or more parties, according to an embodiment ofthe invention; and

FIG. 3 is a system diagram of an exemplary computer system on which atleast one embodiment of the invention can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As described herein, an aspect of the present invention includes intentdiscovery in audio and/or text-based conversations. Given an audio ortext-based conversation, for example, between a customer and one or moreagents, an aspect of the invention includes determining or extractingthe utterances that likely carry intent of the customer.

In an example implementation of at least one embodiment of theinvention, intent can be defined as the reason a caller (or customer)contacted a call-center. In such a scenario, a caller/customer may becalling the call-center to convey a message, to get an issue resolved,etc. Also, intent can be multi-level, such as, for instance, inconnection with billing versus connection. By way of example, abilling-related call can be directed to a billing address, a wrongamount billed, a refund adjustment issue, etc.

Accordingly, in such an example implementation, extracting utterancesthat contain intent from a customer-agent conversation can facilitateidentification of top customer issues and assist in efficientaggregation of customer concerns and feedback. Additionally, extractingutterances that are likely to contain intent from a customer-agentconversation can aid a supervisor to efficiently browse through calls todetect salient or determined-relevant conversations for qualitymonitoring. Also, analysis of correlations of call-center service levelagreements (SLA) and customer issues can be aided with at least oneembodiment of the invention. Further, extracting utterances that likelycarry intent from a customer-agent conversation can facilitateidentification of frequently asked questions (FAQs) and enable callautomation. Additionally, as detailed herein, at least one embodiment ofthe invention can include assisting in sorting and indexing calls, aswell as improving call summarization.

Accordingly, an example embodiment of the invention can be carried outas follows. Given a set of utterances and the utterances' chronologicalor temporal order in a conversation, the utterances are ranked such thatthe utterance which is most likely to carry the caller intent has thehighest rank. In order to obtain the ranked utterances, a score iscomputed for each utterance that includes two sub-scores. The firstsub-score is computed based on the constituent words of the utterance.Each word is assigned a score based on its number of occurrences in theutterance and how often it occurs in general in the corpus. In at leastone embodiment of the invention, the utterance score can be the sum ofthe individual word scores. The second sub-score for the utterance iscomputed based on the utterance's similarity with the subsequentutterances in the conversation. Similarity measures such as, forexample, cosine similarity, can be used for this purpose. The finalscore for the utterance is computed as a linear combination of the twosub-scores. Accordingly, the utterances are ranked in decreasing orderof score.

This aspect of the invention is carried out in similar fashion for bothaudio conversations and text conversations. Audio conversations arefirst transcribed either manually or using automatic speech recognition(ASR) techniques, and the utterances that carry intent are identified asdescribed herein.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment, accordingto an aspect of the invention. By way of illustration, FIG. 1 depictsconversation or call transcripts 102, which are provided to aword/feature weight scorer module 104. By way of example, this modulecan perform inverse document frequency (idf) based scoring. The inversedocument frequency is a measure of whether a word or term is common orrare across all documents. An idf score is obtained by dividing thetotal number of documents by the number of documents containing theterm, and then taking the logarithm of that quotient as follows:

${{idf}\left( {t,D} \right)} = {\log{\frac{D}{\left\{ {d \in {D:{t \in d}}} \right\} }.}}$

In this equation, |D| is the cardinality of D, or the total number ofdocuments in the corpus, |{d ∈ D:t ∈ d}| is the number of documentswhere the term t appears (that is, tf(t, d)≠0). If the term is not inthe corpus, this will lead to a division-by-zero. It is therefore commonto adjust the formula to 1+|{d ∈ D:t ∈ d}|.

Alternatively, the weights for a set of words can be given manually.That is, a list of words likely indicative of intent, along withweights, can be provided. Here, a weight associated with each wordcharacterizes a probability that this is an intent-carrying word in thegiven domain.

Once a weight for each word is determined, a weight for each utterancecan be calculated. An example method for calculating weight of anutterance is summing the weight of each constituent word in theutterance. Alternatively, the weight of an utterance can be determinedby taking the weight of the word with a maximum weight that occurs inthe utterance.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, output from weight scorer module 104 isprovided to initial utterance influence scorer module 106. By way ofexample, the initial utterance influence scorer module 106 can performterm frequency-inverse document frequency (tf-idf) based scoring.Alternatively, examples of intent utterances can be provided and aninitial score for an utterance can be derived by looking at thesimilarity between the utterance and the provided intent utterances.Output from the influence scorer module 106 is provided to the relevancepropagation module 108, which generates the top likely intent-carryingutterances for each conversation or call.

The relevance propagation module 108 can perform relevance scorepropagation based on notions such as, for example, that intent istypically conveyed in the early part of a call, and that the intentconveyed drives the entire call.

Further, in at least one embodiment of the invention, the call isrepresented as a graph, such that nodes correspond to utterances andedge weights correspond to the similarity between the utterances.Additionally, an algorithm used in at least one embodiment of theinvention includes initializing a relevance score using TF-IDF weightsof the constituent words of an utterance. Also, relevance scores can bepropagated to the nodes back in time proportional to the weights of theedges, and utterances (nodes) with high relevance scores can beextracted. By way of example, such an algorithm can include thefollowing:

final_rel_score(i) = ini_rel_score(i) + prop_score(i)${{prop\_ score}(i)} = {\sum\limits_{j > i}\;{{ini\_ rel}{\_ score}(j)*{sim\_ wt}\left( {i,j} \right)}}$

Accordingly, once an initial weight of an utterance is determined, theweights can be propagated in a call in the following manner. Let u₁ bethe first utterance in the call and u₂ be the second utterance in thecall. Let w₁ be the initial weight associated with u₁ and w₂ be theinitial weight associated with u₂. Further, let sim(u₁, u₂) denote asimilarity value between the utterance u₁ and u₂. As noted, an examplefunction such as cosine similarity between the vector representations ofthe utterances can be used in making this calculation. In the relevancepropagation, a weight is propagated from utterance u₂ to utterance u₁,where u₂ occurs chronologically subsequent to u₁, in the following way:Prop_score(u ₂ ,u ₁)=w ₂*sim(u ₁ , u ₂).

Here, Prop_score(u₂,u₁) denotes the propagated score from u₂ to u₁. Theoverall score for an utterance, for example, u₁, can be calculated asfollows:Final_score(u ₁)=w ₁+sum_{all utterances u _(i) that occurchronologically later than u ₁*Prop_score(u _(i) , u ₁)}.

Additionally, an edge weight computation can be carried using, forexample, a word match between the utterances, cosine similarity ofTF-IDF vectors of the utterances, word co-occurrence, etc. Wordco-occurrence can include mutual information between words computedbased on statistics from the entire set of data, and can potentiallylink utterances not only containing the same words but also containingsemantically-linked words based on the context of the call orconversation. Mutual information between two words can be estimated fromthe entire set of data, and utterance co-occurrence can be computed fromcomponent word co-occurrences.

By way of example, the above computation can be carried out via anequation such as the following:

${M\left( {{word}_{1},{word}_{2}} \right)} = \frac{P\left( {{word}_{1},{word}_{2}} \right)}{{P\left( {word}_{1} \right)}*{P\left( {word}_{2} \right)}}$

As detailed herein, an aspect of the invention includes the use offeatures between utterances. Features are words that have a causalrelation with a higher set of words. For example, the word “bill” mayhave a causal relation with “date” and/or “month.” As used herein,features are words or bigrams or phrases, and a set of features iscomputed automatically given a set of conversations. A casualrelationship between words, such as described herein, captures, forexample, how likely it is that a term “y” will occur given that “x” hasalready occurred. By way of illustration, if “bill” has already occurredin a call, it may be likely that the call will include a word such as“credit card,” “pay,” etc.

As noted, at least one embodiment of the invention includes presentingutterances of an audio and/or text-based conversation in a ranked ordersuch that the rank corresponds to intent-likelihood. Additionally, anaspect of the invention can include highlighting and displaying theutterance(s) and/or region(s) of the conversation that correspond to theintent.

By way merely of illustration, below is an example call centerconversation between an operator (agent) and a caller (customer) forwhich an embodiment of the invention can be implemented. Note thatunderlined words indicate casual relations, and bold words indicateacross-call occurrences.

-   -   Operator: Acme Bank, how may I help you?    -   Caller: Yes, I had a question about my credit card bill.    -   Operator: Can I have your name?    -   Caller: Bob Smith.    -   Operator: And your credit card account number?    -   Caller: 1234 5678 9876 5432.    -   Operator: What is your billing address?    -   Caller: 742 Evergreen Terrace, Springfield, Oreg.    -   Operator: Thank you, Mr. Smith. What was the problem with your        bill statement?    -   Caller: I see a charge on December 15 on my card for $25 that I        do not understand. I cannot figure out who the payee is for this        bill. I only see a bunch of numbers and letters against the        charge.    -   Operator: One moment, please.    -   Operator: The $25 charge on December 15 was for Company XYZ.    -   Caller: How am I supposed to determine that from the numbers and        letters on the card statement?    -   Operator: I understand. Do you want to contest the charge?    -   Caller: No. That is not necessary. I just needed to know what        that bill was for.    -   Operator: Is there anything else that I can help you with today?    -   Caller: No. That is all. Thank you.    -   Operator: You're welcome. Thank you for using Acme Bank.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating techniques for identifying one ormore utterances that are likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from aconversation between two or more parties, according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Step 202 includes obtaining an input of a set ofutterances in chronological order from a conversation between two ormore parties. As detailed herein, the utterances can be transcriptionsof original audio utterances and/or text-based utterances.

Step 204 includes computing an intent confidence value of each utteranceby combining or summing intent confidence scores from each of theconstituent words of the utterance, wherein intent confidence scorescapture each word's influence on the subsequent utterances in theconversation based on (i) the uniqueness of the word in the conversationand (ii) the number of times the word subsequently occurs in theconversation.

In at least one embodiment of the invention, influence of each word onthe subsequent utterances in the conversation can also be based onsimilarity of words, phrases and/or features between utterances in theconversation. Similarity of words can be based, for example, on a cosinesimilarity measure. Features can include words that have a causalrelation with a higher set of words.

Step 206 includes generating a ranked order of the utterances fromhighest to lowest intent confidence value, wherein the highest intentvalue corresponds to the utterance which is most likely to carry intentof the speaker. Additionally, at least one embodiment of the inventionincludes selecting the top N utterances from the ranked order torepresent an intent summary of the conversation.

The techniques depicted in FIG. 2 can also include highlighting anddisplaying each utterance and/or region of the conversation thatcorrespond to the intent of the conversation.

Additionally, as detailed herein, at least one embodiment of theinvention can include providing at least one transcript of utterancesfrom a conversation between two or more parties to a word weight scoringmodule to perform inverse document frequency based scoring on each wordin the at least one transcript, thereby generating a weight for eachword, wherein the inverse document frequency based scoring measures thefrequency of each word throughout the at least one transcript,calculating a weight for each utterance in the transcript to generateweighted utterances by summing the weights of each constituent word ineach utterance. Such an embodiment can also include comparing at leastone weighted utterance to pre-existing example utterances carrying theintent of a speaker to determine a relevancy score for the at least oneweighted utterance based on similarity to the example utterances, andgenerating a ranked order of the at least one weighted utterance fromhighest to lowest intent relevancy score, wherein the highest intentrelevancy score corresponds to the utterance which is most likely tocarry intent of the speaker.

A word weight scoring module can include a list of words likelyindicative of speaker intent along with a weight associated with eachword, wherein the weight characterizes probability that the word is aword carrying intent of a speaker. Additionally, such an embodiment canfurther include performing term frequency—inverse document frequencybased scoring on the weighted utterances.

The techniques depicted in FIG. 2 can also, as described herein, includeproviding a system, wherein the system includes distinct softwaremodules, each of the distinct software modules being embodied on atangible computer-readable recordable storage medium. All of the modules(or any subset thereof) can be on the same medium, or each can be on adifferent medium, for example. The modules can include any or all of thecomponents shown in the figures and/or described herein. In an aspect ofthe invention, the modules can run, for example, on a hardwareprocessor. The method steps can then be carried out using the distinctsoftware modules of the system, as described above, executing on ahardware processor. Further, a computer program product can include atangible computer-readable recordable storage medium with code adaptedto be executed to carry out at least one method step described herein,including the provision of the system with the distinct softwaremodules.

Additionally, the techniques depicted in FIG. 2 can be implemented via acomputer program product that can include computer useable program codethat is stored in a computer readable storage medium in a dataprocessing system, and wherein the computer useable program code wasdownloaded over a network from a remote data processing system. Also, inan aspect of the invention, the computer program product can includecomputer useable program code that is stored in a computer readablestorage medium in a server data processing system, and wherein thecomputer useable program code is downloaded over a network to a remotedata processing system for use in a computer readable storage mediumwith the remote system.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in a computer readable medium havingcomputer readable program code embodied thereon.

An aspect of the invention or elements thereof can be implemented in theform of an apparatus including a memory and at least one processor thatis coupled to the memory and operative to perform exemplary methodsteps.

Additionally, an aspect of the present invention can make use ofsoftware running on a general purpose computer or workstation. Withreference to FIG. 3, such an implementation might employ, for example, aprocessor 302, a memory 304, and an input/output interface formed, forexample, by a display 306 and a keyboard 308. The term “processor” asused herein is intended to include any processing device, such as, forexample, one that includes a CPU (central processing unit) and/or otherforms of processing circuitry. Further, the term “processor” may referto more than one individual processor. The term “memory” is intended toinclude memory associated with a processor or CPU, such as, for example,RAM (random access memory), ROM (read only memory), a fixed memorydevice (for example, hard drive), a removable memory device (forexample, diskette), a flash memory and the like. In addition, the phrase“input/output interface” as used herein, is intended to include, forexample, a mechanism for inputting data to the processing unit (forexample, mouse), and a mechanism for providing results associated withthe processing unit (for example, printer). The processor 302, memory304, and input/output interface such as display 306 and keyboard 308 canbe interconnected, for example, via bus 310 as part of a data processingunit 312. Suitable interconnections, for example via bus 310, can alsobe provided to a network interface 314, such as a network card, whichcan be provided to interface with a computer network, and to a mediainterface 316, such as a diskette or CD-ROM drive, which can be providedto interface with media 318.

Accordingly, computer software including instructions or code forperforming the methodologies of the invention, as described herein, maybe stored in associated memory devices (for example, ROM, fixed orremovable memory) and, when ready to be utilized, loaded in part or inwhole (for example, into RAM) and implemented by a CPU. Such softwarecould include, but is not limited to, firmware, resident software,microcode, and the like.

A data processing system suitable for storing and/or executing programcode will include at least one processor 302 coupled directly orindirectly to memory elements 304 through a system bus 310. The memoryelements can include local memory employed during actual implementationof the program code, bulk storage, and cache memories which providetemporary storage of at least some program code in order to reduce thenumber of times code must be retrieved from bulk storage duringimplementation.

Input/output or I/O devices (including but not limited to keyboards 308,displays 306, pointing devices, and the like) can be coupled to thesystem either directly (such as via bus 310) or through intervening I/Ocontrollers (omitted for clarity).

Network adapters such as network interface 314 may also be coupled tothe system to enable the data processing system to become coupled toother data processing systems or remote printers or storage devicesthrough intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem andEthernet cards are just a few of the currently available types ofnetwork adapters.

As used herein, including the claims, a “server” includes a physicaldata processing system (for example, system 312 as shown in FIG. 3)running a server program. It will be understood that such a physicalserver may or may not include a display and keyboard.

As noted, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in a computer readable medium havingcomputer readable program code embodied thereon. Also, any combinationof computer readable media may be utilized. The computer readable mediummay be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storagemedium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but notlimited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared,or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitablecombination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustivelist) of the computer readable storage medium would include thefollowing: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-onlymemory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device,or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of thisdocument, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible mediumthat can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing an appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing.

Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of thepresent invention may be written in any combination of at least oneprogramming language, including an object oriented programming languagesuch as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional proceduralprogramming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similarprogramming languages. The program code may execute entirely on theuser's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alonesoftware package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remotecomputer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latterscenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computerthrough any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or awide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an externalcomputer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet ServiceProvider).

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. Accordingly, an aspect of the inventionincludes an article of manufacture tangibly embodying computer readableinstructions which, when implemented, cause a computer to carry out aplurality of method steps as described herein.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, component, segment,or portion of code, which comprises at least one executable instructionfor implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also benoted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted inthe block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example,two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

It should be noted that any of the methods described herein can includean additional step of providing a system comprising distinct softwaremodules embodied on a computer readable storage medium; the modules caninclude, for example, any or all of the components detailed herein. Themethod steps can then be carried out using the distinct software modulesand/or sub-modules of the system, as described above, executing on ahardware processor 302. Further, a computer program product can includea computer-readable storage medium with code adapted to be implementedto carry out at least one method step described herein, including theprovision of the system with the distinct software modules.

In any case, it should be understood that the components illustratedherein may be implemented in various forms of hardware, software, orcombinations thereof, for example, application specific integratedcircuit(s) (ASICS), functional circuitry, an appropriately programmedgeneral purpose digital computer with associated memory, and the like.Given the teachings of the invention provided herein, one of ordinaryskill in the related art will be able to contemplate otherimplementations of the components of the invention.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition ofanother feature, integer, step, operation, element, component, and/orgroup thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed.

At least one aspect of the present invention may provide a beneficialeffect such as, for example, automatically detecting caller or speakerintent from an audio or text-based conversation.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying one or more utterancesthat are likely to carry the intent of a speaker, from a conversationbetween two or more parties, the method comprising: obtaining an inputof a set of utterances in chronological order from a conversationbetween two or more parties; computing an intent confidence value ofeach utterance by summing intent confidence scores from each of theconstituent words of the utterance, wherein intent confidence scorescapture each word's influence on the subsequent utterances in theconversation based on (i) the uniqueness of the word in the conversationand (ii) the number of times the word subsequently occurs in theconversation, and wherein said computing is carried out by a featureweight scorer module and an initial utterance influence scorer moduleexecuting on a hardware processor of a computing device; and generatinga ranked order of the utterances from highest to lowest intentconfidence value, wherein the highest intent value corresponds to theutterance which is most likely to carry intent of the speaker, andwherein said generating is carried out by a relevant propagation moduleexecuting on a hardware processor of the computing device.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the utterances are transcriptions of original audioutterances.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the utterances aretext-based utterances.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein each word'sinfluence on the subsequent utterances in the conversation is also basedon the similarity of words, phrases and/or features between utterancesin the conversation.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the similarity ofwords is based on a cosine similarity measure.
 6. The method of claim 4,wherein the features are words that have a causal relation with a higherset of words.
 7. The method of claim 1, comprising selecting the top Nutterances from the ranked order to represent an intent summary of theconversation.
 8. The method of claim 1, comprising highlighting eachutterance and/or region of the conversation that corresponds to theintent of the conversation.
 9. The method of claim 8, comprisingdisplaying each highlighted utterance and/or region of the conversationthat correspond to the intent of the conversation.
 10. An article ofmanufacture comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage mediumhaving computer readable instructions tangibly embodied thereon which,when implemented, cause a computer to carry out a plurality of methodsteps comprising: obtaining an input of a set of utterances inchronological order from a conversation between two or more parties;computing an intent confidence value of each utterance by summing intentconfidence scores from each of the constituent words of the utterance,wherein intent confidence scores capture each word's influence on thesubsequent utterances in the conversation based on (i) the uniqueness ofthe word in the conversation and (ii) the number of times the wordsubsequently occurs in the conversation; and generating a ranked orderof the utterances from highest to lowest intent confidence value,wherein the highest intent value corresponds to the utterance which ismost likely to carry intent of the speaker.
 11. The article ofmanufacture of claim 10, wherein the utterances are transcriptions oforiginal audio utterances.
 12. The article of manufacture of claim 10,wherein the utterances are text-based utterances.
 13. The article ofmanufacture of claim 10, wherein each word's influence on the subsequentutterances in the conversation is also based on the similarity of words,phrases and/or features between utterances in the conversation.
 14. Thearticle of manufacture of claim 13, wherein the features are words thathave a causal relation with a higher set of words.
 15. The article ofmanufacture of claim 10, wherein the method steps comprise selecting thetop N utterances from the ranked order to represent an intent summary ofthe conversation.
 16. The article of manufacture of claim 10, whereinthe method steps comprise highlighting each utterance and/or region ofthe conversation that corresponds to the intent of the conversation. 17.The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the method stepscomprise displaying each highlighted utterance and/or region of theconversation that correspond to the intent of the conversation.